Scholarship/Merit scholarship to OBC/MIN/SC/ST students from Class I to XII(SMSTOMSSSFC)

Overview

About SMSTOMSSSFC

The scheme name promised Class I to Class XII to SC, ST, OBC and minority students alike. The rate tables underneath did not keep that promise evenly: an OBC child in Class III drew nothing at all, while an SC child sitting beside them drew a flat annual amount with no marks test.

The Planning Department's chapter on the Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC sets the scheme out in three parts: a scholarship for SC and ST students in Classes I to VIII, a merit scholarship for SC and ST students in Classes IX to XII, and a merit scholarship for OBC students that begins only at Class VI (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6). That split is what the slash in "Scholarship/Merit Scholarship" stands for. The first part was paid on category and class alone; everything from Class VI for an OBC student, and from Class IX for everyone else, turned on the percentage scored in the previous class.

Money moved through the school rather than around it. The Education Department ran the scheme, except in recognised public schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas and schools under the municipal corporations, NDMC and the Delhi Cantonment Board, and for students of Kendriya Vidyalayas and recognised public schools the welfare department disbursed the scholarship itself. Applications moved online to the e-district portal from the financial year 2016-17, and in that year the scheme reached 4,37,561 students against a target of 5,00,000 (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6).

Before a family starts hunting for the form, it is worth knowing that no current departmental list carries this scholarship. The department's services page counts nine schemes, five state and four centrally sponsored, and names tuition fee reimbursement, the college merit scholarship, the Dr B.R. Ambedkar topper award, Mukhyamantri Vidyarthi Pratibha Yojna, overseas assistance for SC students and the four pre-matric and post-matric schemes (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, Services and Schemes). The scholarship scheme guidelines for 2025-26 set those same schemes out in detail and stop there, and the Directorate of Education's note to schools on the state funded scholarship schemes is thinner still, keeping only tuition fee reimbursement and Mukhyamantri Vidyarthi Pratibha Yojna on the state side (Directorate of Education, state funded scholarship schemes). What survives is the department's undated instruction sheet for students, which prints this scheme third in its list of eight and is the document the scheme record still links as its guidelines.

The Planning Department's own record explains the gap. Its 2020-21 chapter on the department states that this scheme has been discontinued, and that a new stationery and merit scholarship for SC/ST/OBC/minority students of Classes I to XII was formulated from FY 2019-20 by merging it with the department's stationery grant (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6, 2020-21). The trail picks up in the social welfare chapter of Delhi's Economic Survey for 2023-24, whose entry on Mukhyamantri Vidyarthi Pratibha Yojna, an award confined to Classes IX to XII, puts the stationery and merit scholarship's name in brackets as the title it once carried (Economic Survey of Delhi 2023-24, Chapter 17). The rates and rules set out below for this scheme are therefore its pre-merger terms as they were written, kept as a record and not as an offer anyone can apply for today.

Who runs it

Provider

At a glance

Key details

Calendar

Important dates

This scheme carried no fixed calendar. Its record leaves both date fields empty, and the department never issued a recurring annual schedule for it. What the department did publish is the shape of a cycle: its public notice for the 2016-17 session names this scholarship third among seven schemes opened for online applications on e-district from 1 December 2016, with the last date later extended to 31 January 2017, a window opening once the school session was well under way (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, public notice, 2016-17 session).

The marks that decided the slab were the previous class's, so a result declared in the summer was what a winter application was judged on. Because income here was a self-declaration rather than a certificate with an expiry date, the timing risk sat on the previous class's marksheet rather than on income proof going stale, which is the opposite of the department's college and fee reimbursement schemes.

The scheme's end carries dates of its own. Cabinet decision no. 2707 dated 02.07.2019 folded it into the merged stationery and merit scholarship from FY 2019-20, and the Planning Department's 2020-21 chapter records Rs 3346.13 lakh incurred under this scheme during 2019-20 against a revised estimate of Rs 3510 lakh, with the 2020-21 allocation kept for previous years' liabilities, if any (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6, 2020-21). The department's 2019-20 round, open from 01/12/2019 to 31/03/2020, therefore fell in the merged scheme's first year rather than this one's (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, apply for scholarship and fee reimbursement 2019-20).

Who can apply

Eligibility criteria

Category decided the class a child could enter at, and the two did not line up.

The last column is where two government documents describe the same scheme differently, and the difference landed hardest on the families with the least paperwork. The department's own instruction sheet states, under this scheme's terms, that family income should not exceed Rs 2.00 lakh per annum, with no category carved out; the same sheet writes the carve-out explicitly one scheme later, for the college merit scholarship, where family income is not applicable in the case of SC and ST students (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, instructions for students). The Planning Department chapter applies that carve-out to this scheme too, and states it twice, under the Classes I to VIII part and again under Classes IX to XII: the family income limit is not applicable for SC and ST students, while income should not exceed Rs 2 lakh per annum for minority students. Under the OBC part it sets the same ceiling with no exception at all.

For a household the practical reading was narrow. An SC or ST family had a departmental scheme description saying the income test did not reach them, and could ask the school head which text was being applied rather than accept a refusal on income alone; an OBC or minority family faced Rs 2 lakh as binding whichever document was opened. The paper asked for was identical either way, a self-declaration rather than a certificate, so what was in dispute was eligibility and not the file.

School type was the other gate, and it was wider than parents might expect. The list of qualifying schools reached beyond government and aided ones to recognised schools affiliated to the Directorate of Education, Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, the National Open School, NDMC, the Delhi Cantonment Board and the municipal corporations, so a child enrolled through the open school route was inside the scheme rather than outside it. A private unaided school that appeared on none of those lists put the child outside it whatever the caste certificate said.

Who cannot apply

Exclusions

The only bar the scheme wrote down was against stacking. A student could hold either the state plan scholarship or a centrally sponsored one, whichever was more beneficial, and the choice had to be declared in writing to the awarding authority through the head of the institution (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6). Beyond that, no list of disqualifications is published in the scheme's material at all.

The verification instructions the department issues to schools for its e-district scholarships turn the same bar into a rejection rule with teeth. A school checking a state scholarship form has to satisfy itself that the same student is not simultaneously running a centrally sponsored claim on the National Scholarship Portal, and once the institute has cleared that central claim, the state form is to be turned down without leaving the school (Instructions for the Institutions). The same document tells heads of government schools to make sure the same beneficiary is not recommended twice for one scheme.

Falling under 55% in the previous class was the quiet exclusion. From Class VI for an OBC student, and from Class IX for everyone, the lowest slab started at 55%, and no rate was published below it.

Continuation

Renewal conditions

Every rate here was written per annum and every merit slab was keyed to the previous class's marks, so an award in one year settled nothing about the next. A student drawing Rs 2,040 in Classes IX and X who landed in the 55% to 60% band the following year dropped to Rs 1,620, and an SC student leaving Class VIII met a 55% floor for the first time (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, instructions for students). The instruction sheet publishes no clause carrying an award forward and no reduced-rate provision for a student who fails and repeats, unlike the college merit scholarship printed beside it in the same document, which halves the rate in exactly that situation.

What you get

Award & benefits

The lowest rates in the scheme went to OBC students in Classes VI to VIII, Rs 600 and Rs 720, and they were the only rates at that stage carrying a marks test at all, while an SC, ST or minority classmate in the same room drew Rs 1,000 on category alone (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, instructions for students). The step up at Class XI was far bigger than the one at Class IX, from Rs 1,620 in Class X to Rs 3,000 in Class XI at the lower band, because the Class XI and XII amounts were enhanced from 2011-12 (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6).

That enhancement came with a top-up rule which qualified the one-scholarship bar. Where a senior secondary student who had scored 55% or more already drew the centrally sponsored post-matric scholarship, the chapter provided a supplementary payment from the Government of NCT budget bringing the year's total to whichever of Rs 3,000 or Rs 4,500 the marks range called for, so taking the central award never left a student below the Delhi rate.

A Class I applicant would not have had a bank account of their own, and the scheme did not let a parent's account stand in for one: the account had to be in the student's name, with a parent or guardian permitted on it only as a joint holder. That was a scheme condition rather than a formality, and it decided whether the money could land at all.

• Class 1st to 8th SC/ST/Minority Students
• ₹1,000/- per Annum (No % of Marks Required).
• OBC Students (6th to 8th)
• ₹600/- per Annum (55% to 60% Marks in Previous Class).
• ₹720/- per Annum (Above 60% Marks in Previous Class).
• Class 9th to 10th SC/ST/OBC/Minority Students
• ₹1,620/- per Annum (55% to 60% Marks in Previous Class).
• ₹2,040/- per Annum (Above 60% Marks in Previous Class).
• Class 11th to 12th SC/ST/OBC/Minority Students
• ₹3,000/- per Annum (55% to 70% Marks in Previous Class).
• ₹4,500/- per Annum (Above 70% Marks in Previous Class).
• _The bank account should be in the name of the student (a joint account with a parent/guardian is permissible)._

What to prepare

Documents required

The paperwork this scheme named was short, and one line in it saved a queue. Income was proved by a self-declaration on the proforma published on the e-district portal, not by an income certificate from an SDM, which is what the department's college merit scholarship asks for instead (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, instructions for students). The caste certificate could stand in the father's name instead of the child's, which was the only reason a Class I application was possible at all. Delhi read only a certificate signed off by one of its own sub-divisional magistrates or a Deputy Commissioner (Revenue), and an SC certificate issued outside Delhi had to travel with a Delhi domicile certificate. A minority applicant also had to evidence three years of residence in Delhi and file a parent's or guardian's declaration naming the community.

Uploads were governed by the portal, not the scheme. Each file has to be under 100 KB and legible, an uploaded document cannot be removed once it is on the system, and the application cannot be edited after final submission (e-District Delhi, general FAQs). Scanning at a size that stayed readable under that cap was worth doing before the form was opened, because a blurred caste certificate was an objection a school would raise and a parent would have to answer.

Step by step

How to apply

The route the department published for this scheme was the e-district portal of NIC Delhi, with every supporting document uploaded there. Almost every applicant here was a minor, which changed who registered. For anyone under 18 the portal's guidance puts the login in a parent's or legal guardian's hands, with the child attached inside that account as a profile and the form filed from there (e-District Delhi, general FAQs). A profile whose identity document cannot be verified against the department database is deleted automatically within 72 hours, so a wrong document number had to be caught on the first attempt.

What followed submission happened inside the school. The head of the institution was the verifying authority, matched what the family typed against the school register down to date of birth, class, category and gender, and then recommended the file upward to the administrative department. Schools held their own portal logins, issued through the Directorate of Education zone, the municipal corporation zone, NDMC headquarters at Palika Kendra or the Delhi Cantonment Board headquarters at Sadar, and a school that could not find itself listed on the portal had to write to its administrative department to be added.

Checking Where the Application Has Reached

An SMS reading EDISTDL sent to 7738299899 returns the same status as the Track Your Application link on the e-district home page (e-District Delhi, general FAQs), which matters in a household sharing one phone and no computer. Where an objection has been raised, its reason is published against the application, usually a document that did not come through, and the counter at the sub-division office or the published helpline will say what is missing.

A rejection is heavier than an objection. Once the competent authority has rejected an application no further action is taken on it, and a citizen is allowed one re-application per service. Spending that single attempt without first fixing what caused the rejection ended the year.

The portal now bears out the Planning Department's record. The e-district service list shows eight entries under the Department of Welfare of SC/ST: the Class I to XII scholarship is not one of them, and Mukhyamantri Vidyarthi Pratibha Yojana is (e-District Delhi, list of services). A family that finds no form for this scheme has not missed a window; there is no service left under its name to apply to.

How winners are picked

Selection process

Nothing here was a competition. The scheme's published material sets out no merit list, no interview and no cap on how many students a school could forward. A student in the right category, in the right class, at a listed school, above the marks floor where one applied and under the income ceiling where it applied was entitled to the rate their band printed.

What the department runs across its e-district scholarships in place of selection is sampled verification, layered to stop money leaking. Applications are checked in full by the head of the school; the Education Department's authorities then re-verify 10% of the ones recommended to them; and officials of the welfare department under the Deputy Director (Scholarship) re-verify 5% of the recommended or approved files (Instructions for the Institutions). A school has no general edit option on a submitted form and may correct a mismatch against its own records only through a separate text box, after the family has asked for the correction in writing.

Take-up has run both ways against the target. The chapter's own table puts achievement above target for 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2014-15 and short of it for 2015-16 and 2016-17, and in 2016-17 the scheme spent Rs 3293.26 lakh of a revised estimate of Rs 11500.00 lakh, against a budget allocation of Rs 12300 lakh for 2017-18 (Planning Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, Chapter 6).

Fine print

Terms & conditions

The condition that decided most outcomes was the choice between this scheme and a centrally sponsored one. Whichever of the two paid more was the one to take, and the written declaration of that choice reached the sanctioning authority by way of the school. The exception written into the Delhi rules for Classes XI and XII, where a post-matric awardee scoring 55% and above was supplemented up to the state rate, was the one place the two were meant to sit together, and a school reading only the general bar could miss it.

The rest were documentary, and they were where applications died: a caste certificate from Delhi's own competent authority or a Delhi domicile certificate beside it, three years of Delhi residence evidenced for a minority applicant, that applicant's parental declaration of community, and an account in the student's own name (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, instructions for students).

Get help

Contact

No desk exists for this scholarship on its own: queries of every kind about the department's scholarships go to a single number, 011-23379512, answered from its Vikas Bhawan office at I.P. Estate, New Delhi-110002 (Department for the Welfare of SC/ST/OBC, Contact Us). No email address is published alongside that number.

For anything that happened before the department saw a file, the school was the right door. The head of the institution held the portal login, raised and cleared objections, and was the person who could say whether an application had been recommended or stopped at verification. Portal faults, a deleted profile or a login that will not work belong to the e-district helpdesk rather than to the welfare department.

Source

Official links

Frequently asked questions

From the official scheme FAQ (myScheme)

Read this

Disclaimer

Disclaimer

Scheme details are compiled from myScheme, the Government of India’s official scheme-discovery platform, and are reproduced without alteration. Amounts, deadlines and eligibility change between cycles, so always confirm on the official links above before applying. Expertie does not process applications or charge fees.

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References

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